Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Tutorial Tuesday: Gilded Lace Crowns

These pretty crowns are great for costumes (Halloween princess, anyone?), fairy house decorations, and the tiny ones could be cute tree ornaments. They are deceptively easy to make, and could be a fun project to do with little ones.

The laces I used have one flat side. That really helps the structure.The width of the lace and the pattern will help you determine the size of your crown.

2) Trim lace to size with a 1/2 inch or more overlap, matching pattern.

3) Paint with gold acrylic paint. Be sure to cover all surfaces.Paint both sides of the lace.Let dry.You may want to do more coats of gold paint.I mixed an iridescent gold and a flakier gold for adeeper look.

4) Place on wax paper.

5) Coat with ModPodge until well saturated.I recommend you seal with, at least, 3 more coats of Modpodge.Move it around while its really wet, to keep the holes in the lace from becoming windows

6) Enhance the color with gold leafing powderdabbed onto wet Modpodge with dry brush.You can skip this step, but I really think it makes all the difference.

7) Dry completely flat. A hair dryer can speed the process.Brush dry crown with a dry brush to remove excess leafing powder.Peel off of the wax paper.

8) After all of ModPodge dries,use craft glue to attach the ends of the lace togetherto form the crown.

8.5)Pinch ends with fingers until set, wait overnight, until dry.

If this crown will see heavy use,some stitches on a sewing machine might also be a good idea.

thank you for the kind words and yay ^_^ i'm glad to know SOMEONE will be reading my blog i always love sharing ideas and getting inspiration which your page has a lot of once i'm done with cleaves other than another knitting project i'll start on this possibly use this for halloween ^_^after all my full name means rebellious fairy goddess (name backwords) thea means goddess in greek, faye fairy in french, and my last name is arcaik french for rebel heheh

This is such a fabulous idea!!! I've been looking for fun crowns to make ever since I was a little kid and wanted to be princessy... for part of that it was Princess Leia, but that's another story... Anyway, I'm loving this idea to pieces and can't wait to try it out! Thank you so much!

We love this crown!! My princess is dying to wear it this Halloween! I have been Mod Podging the thing like crazy and it is still not stiff enough to stand alone - I am going to apply the 5th coat this morning. Any ideas? The color is beautiful - the lace is beautiful we just lack stiffness. What could I be doing wrong? Thank you so much for sharing your fabulous ideas! You make me look so very clever!!!! ;)

Can you send a picture? My crowns are a little on the small side. The "perch a-top" variety, they are still pliable, but they stand. Liquid starch might work too. Do you remember the old yarn around a balloon trick craft from Kindergarten?As a last resort... how about a framework of gilded pipe cleaners glued to the inside? Should work like a charm. You can white glue or stitch it in place.

Thank you so much for sharing this tutorial. I am not a crafts person at all, but this seems doable for a person like me. I was wondering where do you get gold leafing powder? - is it available at art stores like Michaels? Which section would I look? Thanks

This is such a lovely idea. I'm keeping this bookmarked! Little tiny crowns would be so lovely decorating a Christmas tree!

Also, I'm sure that, for those of us who can't get a hold of gold leaf or are utterly lost as to what to do with it, gold and silver spray paint could work just as well. Also, they make glitter spray paints! So if a person wants to make a fairy crown, they can give it that extra little bit of magic.

thanks so much I am going to try to make three of these but in silver and you will not believe what I will use them for .... my wedding!!! woo hoo, well if the come out right- one for me and two little one for my flower girls I think I will use the spay paint which is more cost effective for me thanks again Fen

Fantastic idea! I am having a costume party soon, and in preparation had attempted to make myself a crown out of painted foam and glitter. It turned out rather gaudy and ugly to look at. I am definitely going to make a variation of one of these lace ones. Thanks for the inspiration!

What an amazing tutorial! My four year old son made crowns for his sisters this year for Christmas and they are so adored! He loved making them and they both love wearing them. Thank you so much for your instructions; it really made the process so easy!

I have been going nuts trying to make a crown for a costume. I have been through so many ideas and materials! Lace! Brilliant!!!! I am so excited to try this, I think it will be perfect! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!

This brings out the girly-girl in all of us. I've crocheted lace snowflakes in the 70s for my Christmas tree and coated them with Elmer's glue because it dries clear. Sometimes you do have "windows", but back then we didn't have mod podge. So love this!

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